


Set A Thief

by Unsentimentalf



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: M/M, Post Horizon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-19 20:21:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12417459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unsentimentalf/pseuds/Unsentimentalf
Summary: The Liberator is now Avon's after the disappearance and presumed demise of the rest of its entire crew on Horizon.  It's not as hands-free to run as Orac had suggested, though, and now he could do with some hired help. It seems that today might be his lucky day...





	1. Set A Thief

“There is an encrypted data package on the Federation carrier wave.” Orac said. “It appears to be a complex mathematical code that also requires a short keyword. Decrypting it may take some time.” 

Avon didn’t lift his head from the mess of wiring. Keeping his ship functional was an endless series of tasks and he couldn’t jump up to look at every oddity that Orac found. “Give it beta priority,” 

“Very well.” Orac usually grumbled about beta priorities, eating as they did into what it considered its own time for its researches. It must be genuinely intrigued, if computers could be intrigued. 

“The package has been decrypted,” it said, a mere six hours or so later. “The code word was Ensor.”

Avon did lift his head that time. “Ah. So a message for us?”

“Obviously for us. There is no message, however. There is only data.”

“On what?”

“On the career of a young man. I believe it may be intended as a job resume.”

Avon had been unsuccessfully trying to find a suitable spare pair of hands for Liberator for some time. News of his search must have spread. “What’s the match to my specifications?

“93 percent.”

Avon brushed the dust off his hands and stood up. He’d been prepared to settle for 75% if someone acceptable had come along. 93% was suspiciously close to perfect. 

“Give me a precis.”

“The subject attended the Federation Academy where he qualified as a pilot. He was appointed as a junior Federation officer, and spent several years in the military. For the last five years he has operated as a smuggler, pirate and occasional mercenary.”

An ex-Fed officer was certainly not what he’d been looking for, but for 93% he might stretch a point. “What did he get kicked out of the military for?”

“He claims to have deserted voluntarily, taking a pursuit ship with him. He is still in possession of the ship.”

Indeed? “Check out every bit of data against anything available, Orac. If any of that is true he must have made some serious waves. Pin down every lie and exaggeration. Has he provided any rendezvous details?”

“Not yet. It would be possible to send a message back using the same carrier wave.” 

“Definitely not,” Avon said. “If anyone’s sticking their necks out over this it won’t be us. If he wants the job he’ll get in touch again.”

 

It was undoubtedly a pursuit ship, albeit a rather battered one, banded bright red and black with “Pirate King” lettered in flourishes on the side. Just a toy compared to Liberator and they were out in deep space with nothing else within a hundred thousand spacials but Avon wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“Open a communications channel.”

The young man was smiling. “You’ve locked weapons onto my ship. That’s not precisely friendly.” 

“We’re not precisely friends,” Avon retorted. “Not yet and quite probably not ever.”

“So what happens now? Do I come over for my interview?”

“I’ll come to you.” Avon wasn’t letting this pirate on Liberator, not yet. “My ship’s automatics are quite capable of guarding both itself and me.”

“I’m sure they are,” the man replied. “I’ve heard remarkable things about that ship, and you. Come over, then, whenever you like.” 

 

The flight deck of the Pirate King was full of wires and bits of automatics, clearly rigged long ago for solo flight. Del Tarrant looked even younger in person, Avon kept his hand on his gun holster as he fired off a set of prepared questions. Tarrant seemed to know what he was talking about. 

“So,” Avon said, having established that, technically at least, the man would more than do. “Why do you want this job?”

“I’m pretty sure that I don’t,” Tarrant said cheerfully. “I have a perfectly good ship of my own and you don’t strike me as the easiest of people to work for. Liberator’s undoubtedly beautiful but would flying her be worth having to take your orders? I suspect not.”

Avon took a deep breath. “So why did you send me your resume?”

“I didn’t.” Tarrant said. 

“I did,” came a familiar voice.

Avon let out the breath and turned to the doorway. “I thought you were dead.”

“You left me to die,” Blake said. “Not quite the same thing.” His gun was levelled very firmly at Avon’s midriff. Avon sighed and put his own down on a console, carefully. 

The truth was probably somewhere between the two. Avon had been fairly certain that the crew on Horizon were dead, but he hadn’t worried over-much about the possibility of being wrong.

“What happened to the others?”

“After you left them to die too? Everyone’s fine, thank you for asking. And now I’m taking my ship back.” Blake spoke into his bracelet. “Zen, stand down all weapons system.” He unbuckled the bracelet from the wrist of the unprotesting Avon and pocketed it. 

“And where does that leave me?”

“Marooned somewhere a lot less dangerous than Horizon was, One to teleport, please, Orac. Maybe you should let me have your resume, Avon. I might have a vacancy at some point for a computer technician. A junior one.” 

Avon stood staring at the spot where he had vanished.

“Don’t look so devastated,” Tarrant said. “He’ll take you back. Eventually. Probably. Meanwhile, you can work your passage. I’ve got some computer glitches for you to look at. After that you’ll want to start on that resume. If you’re nice to me I can let you see a pretty good one you can crib off.”

The look should have withered him where he stood. Tarrant just grinned wider. “The main computer console is this way.” 

Avon sighed and followed, giving one last wistful look back to where his ship was disappearing off the screen without him. However bad Horizon might had been, he suspected this was going to turn out to be far worse.

 

Tarrant swept up the sheet and wrapped it around his waist as he sat down at the comms unit. “This is Pirate King. Identify yourself.”

“Hello Tarrant. Good to see you again.” Avon knew that voice. He grabbed for his clothes and rolled out of sight. 

“Is this a bad time?” Blake asked politely.

“Actually it was shaping up to be a pretty good one till it was interrupted,” Tarrant said. “Do you want to speak to Avon?  
`  
“Please.”

“He's on the floor for some reason, wrestling with his trousers.” Tarrant looked down at him. “I should give him a few seconds.”

Avon rose to his fee, still half naked, and shoved the younger man out of the chair. “What do you want?” he demanded of Blake. 

“I was going to ask if you wanted to come back to Liberator but it seems that your feet are quite firmly under the table where you are.” Blake sounded distinctly amused. Avon wasn’t.

“When will you be in teleport range?” 

“About two hours”

“Call again, then. I’ll be ready to teleport.”

”Will do, And Avon? 

Avon glared at him. “What? “

“You will let me know if you're planning to bring your new partner with you?”

Avon snapped the connection off without replying. 

 

“I didn't think that Tarrant would be your type.” Blake took the teleport bracelet off Avon and put it away with his own. 

“How would you know what my type is?” Avon demanded.

“Good point. I guess I know now.”

“You left me there for six weeks without a halfway decent computer,” Avon pointed out. “There was absolutely nothing interesting to do.”

“Except Del Tarrant, apparently. The others are waiting on the flight deck.”

Avon contemplated the upcoming reunion without enthusiasm. “I suppose you consider all this hilarity is my penance for leaving you behind.” 

Blake turned round, startled. “Hardly. This is just funny. Believe me, you’re not going to get off that lightly. Your penances for Horizon haven't started yet.”

 

“Penal colony again, Vila.” Avon said, with a very small hint of smugness. If he had to play this stupid game it was some consolation that he did at least consistently win. 

“Signal coming in.” Cally said. “It’s the Pirate King.”

Avon moved his flagship and pretended not to have heard.

“Avon?” Jenna called out. “Do you want to take this one?”

“I’m busy,” he called back. “When am I ever not?”

He’d had two months now of being at other people’s beck and call and he was heartily sick of it. Vila’s fascination with Space Monopoly followed two weeks of Cally’s dual meditation exercises, and before that it had been a fortnight ghost writing Gan’s utterly tedious autobiography. By comparison the first two weeks merely following Jenna everywhere so that he could be ordered to fetch things and press buttons for her seemed in retrospect remarkably benign. 

A couple more days and he was done with Vila’s whims. He would have felt more pleasure at the prospect if it hadn’t heralded Blake’s turn to command every minute of his spare time for two weeks. Avon was gloomily convinced that Blake had something particularly annoying planned and even the prospect of his freedom in sixteen days couldn’t cheer him up. 

“I’ll take it,” Blake said. “Receiving you, Pirate King. Hello, Tarrant. How are things?”

“Fine,” Tarrant said. “Moderately profitable, even.”

“What can we do for you?”

“You said that you owed me a favour, if you remember, for helping you recover your ship.”

“Indeed I did,” Blake said, sounding cautious. “What particular favour might you have in mind?” 

“I’d like to borrow Avon.”

“No.” Avon said. 

Blake didn’t seem to have heard him. “What for, and for how long?”

“About three weeks, I think,” Tarrant said. “ I need some computers tampered with, and a second pair of hands for the heist itself. It should be entertaining and quite lucrative.” 

“I’m not doing it,” Avon said. He’d left the game and was now glaring at Tarrant’s image on the screen.

“You’re not a free agent yet, Avon.” Blake said. “How dangerous is this going to be, Tarrant?”

“I don’t intend for it to be dangerous at all,” Tarrant said. “Not if I get some expertise for the set up. We’re talking serious money, if that makes a difference.” 

“We have serious money already,” Avon pointed out to Blake. “Why don’t you just give him some of that and tell him to go away?”

“That’s no fun at all,” Tarrant said. “Well? Do I get him?”

“We’ll get back to you in a few minutes,” Blake told him. “I want a brief talk with Avon first.” 

“I really don’t want to stay beholden to Del Tarrant,” Blake said, when they had decamped into the side room they used for private conversations. “His next idea of a favour might be considerably more unreasonable. You still owe me, Avon. I won’t make you do this but you’re going to be slavishly following someone’s orders for the next couple of weeks. Mine or Tarrant’s- does it make much different to you? Either way at the end of it we’re all square.”

Put that way, it made a great deal of difference to Avon. He could shrug off any of Tarrant’s small tyrannies just as he had shrugged off those of Vila and the others. Blake was a different matter. He really did not want to have to do whatever Blake might tell him.

“That will be the end of this nonsense?”

“You have my word.” Blake said. “After that I will expect no more of you than I do of the others. That includes not stealing the ship again, of course.”

“Very well. I’ll go.”

“Thank you, “ Blake said. “I appreciate it.”

Humph, Avon though, but he said nothing more.


	2. Incidental Benefits

“Avon! How are you doing?” Tarrant seemed delighted to see him.

“I’m being coerced,” Avon said. “How do you think? What is it that I have to do?”

“No hurry. You can settle in first. I’ve cleared some space in my room for your stuff, unless you’d prefer to bunk down in the hold again?”

The hold had been echoing and unwelcoming and the facilities barely qualified as basic. Tarrant’s quarters were far more comfortable even before one factored in the utility of a warm and enthusiastic body sharing the wide bed. Given that it seemed that he no longer had any reputation to preserve, Avon had already decided that he might as well make the most of the incidental benefits of his posting. 

Tarrant leaned against the doorway and watched Avon unpack his few belongings into the vacated locker with annoyingly obvious satisfaction. Avon pushed the door closed, locked it and turned to his observer.

“Let’s get one thing straight. The sole reason that I am here because Blake is still amusing himself by jerking me around and the alternative I was presented with was worse.” 

“No sympathy from over here,” Tarrant said. “Whatever he’s doing is certainly no more than you deserve. When I stole my ship I didn’t leave my crew to rot on a slave planet.” 

“Your opinion on the matter doesn’t interest me,” Avon said sharply. “I am merely pointing out that being here is not my idea.”

“Noted,” Tarrant said. “I’m rather glad you’re here anyway. Dinner?”

 

“Liberator here. Avon! Everything all right?” Jenna asked.

“About as tedious as might be expected,” Avon said to the screen. “I need to run some data through Orac. I’ll send it over to Zen. Tell Orac to pick it up and process it, alpha priority.”

“I’ll have to check with Blake,” Jenna said.

“Why? He won’t have any more idea of what I’m talking about than Gan would.” 

“He’ll be here in a minute, anyway. How are you and Tarrant getting along?” 

Avon scowled. “He’s irritating and intermittently stupid.”

“Hey, I’m right here!” Tarrant complained from the other side of the flight deck.

“She’s not really interested in your personality defects. She only wants to know if we’re sleeping together.” Avon said.

“So are you?” Jenna asked, undaunted.

“None of your...” he was about to say ‘business’ when arms encircled his neck affectionately from behind. 

“Like rabbits.” Tarrant said happily over his shoulder. “Particularly horny rabbits.” 

Avon froze. “Let go of me now or I’ll turn your precious spaceship into worthless slag,” he hissed..

Tarrant backed off. “No need to get aggressive.”

“Who’s being aggressive?” That was Blake, coming into the camera range. Avon felt like ice. 

“Avon doesn’t want to talk about his remarkable sexual prowess,” Tarrant said

Blake looked unamused this time. “Good. Neither do I. Was that all you were calling about, Avon?”

“I need to run some data past Orac,” Avon said. 

“Why?”

“Because Tarrant’s idea of not dangerous and mine differ considerably.”

“Seriously,” Blake said. “I’ll need more than that.”

“You’ll need more?” Avon could feel his temper rising. “Since when did I have to justify my use of Orac to you?”

“Since you wanted to run programs on it in from someone else’s spaceship. What’s the data for?”

Avon unclenched his jaw. Snapping wouldn’t help. “The item that Tarrant is planning to pillage has a rapidly changing force field as part of its security system. My gut tells me it’s not random but the pocket calculator that runs this pathetic excuse for a ship can’t spot the patterns. Orac could do it in a few milliseconds with half its synapses disconnected.”

“I think we should just blow it up,” Tarrant chipped in. “But Avon likes turning things off and on neatly.” 

“All right,” Blake said. “Send me the data in an isolated package and I’ll take a look. If it’s harmless Orac can have it.” 

“If it’s harmless? Is this what it’s going to be like from now on?” Avon demanded? 

Blake frowned. “I’m not sure. It would be easier to trust you if you weren’t making alliances away from the ship.” 

Avon mastered his fury with difficulty. “You’ll get the package.” He slammed the connection closed. The only reason he was on this damn ship was that Blake sent him away and then he accuses him of making outside alliances?

“Trouble in paradise?” Tarrant asked.

Avon stormed past him into the shared bedroom and dragged bedding and his possessions into the hold. Then he sent the data package, obediently isolated, and took himself off to his cold and equally isolated bed.

 

 

“That was... almost exhilarating.” Avon was still catching his breath as the ship took off, Tarrant dodging the last barrage of gunfire with ease.

“Wasn't it just!” Tarrant was laughing. “I told you it would work!”

“Once you did what I told you to instead of your own stupid notion,” Avon retorted.

“Fair enough,” Tarrant conceded. “But it worked. That's what matters. There are still a couple of pursuit ships on our trail but we'll be rid of them soon.” 

Avon had spent enough time on the Pirate King to know that Tarrant's confidence about outflying anyone else was unlikely to be misplaced. Still he watched the screen until the last of their pursuers had vanished. 

“There.” Tarrant said with satisfaction. “And new course set. Eleven hours to Domus 2 and the buyer. Time for a celebratory drink, I think.” 

They settled in the two chairs in the small galley with a rather good bottle on the table between them. 

“You make a pretty good thief,” Tarrant commented. 

“Evidence suggests otherwise,” Avon poured himself a glass. 

“The ship? That was a mistake, yes. As soon as I saw Blake I could tell that he wasn't a man to steal anything of value from. He'd hunt you half way across the galaxy to get it back.”

“More than halfway, as it turns out,” Avon said. 

“Well,” Tarrant said casually, “if he doesn't stop giving you a hard time over it you do have an alternative.” 

“Is that a proposition?” 

“I thought we worked well together. And I could fix up another room for you, if you were going to be here for a while. You wouldn't have to stay in the hold.”

Tarrant had accepted Avon's abrupt termination of their physical relationship without complaint or a demand for explanation, which suited Avon who wasn't even sure what the explanation would have been. The young man had tuned out to be less difficult to live with than many people - certainly less difficult than Blake, for instance. But even though Liberator might not be Avon's outright he had a claim to a share at least of it that was worth a great deal more than half a battered ex pursuit ship. 

Tarrant took this finance-based rejection in a sanguine fashion. “I didn't think you'd leave Liberator. Still, the offer's there if things go pear-shaped with Blake.” 

Avon thought about having to deal with Blake on his return to Liberator and poured himself another drink. And then another. The stuff was stronger than he was used to and by the time Tarrant had finished telling him unlikely stories from the man's most recent mercenary engagement he was slightly tipsy. 

“Nine hours left on automatics,” Tarrant said, turning his glass upside down and stretching ”That's a good night’s sleep. I’m going to turn in.” 

“Good night for you, maybe. Not in your bloody hold.”

“Oh, do sleep in the bed,” Tarrant said, with a lavish wave towards his room. “After the day we've had you deserve a bit of comfort.” 

“And where are you going to sleep?” 

“There's room enough for both of us if you remember.” 

Avon did remember. It wasn't as if he was going to have sex with the guy. Just get that comfortable night's sleep that Tarrant was right, he'd earned.

 

Avon stood in the shower next morning feeling simultaneously physically relaxed and mentally compromised. The night hadn’t been a problem. He’d fallen asleep barely aware of the other man’s presence. It had been waking with an erection and a headache, and Tarrant’s cheerful suggestion in his ear of what could be done about at least one of those annoyances. One thing had led to another and two weeks of deliberate abstention had been wasted. At least it seemed to have cured the headache.

Tarrant looked at his face as he walked onto the flight deck and sighed. “I won’t mention it to anyone,” he said.

“You can do what you like, “ Avon said, trying to sound as if he meant it.

“Really. I won’t. Buyer’s coming on board in the next half hour. Want to hold a gun on him and look suitably bad tempered for me?“

“That part I can do with conviction,” Avon said. 

 

“What's that?” Avon poked the chip on the galley table with a finger.

“Your share.”

“Give it to Blake. Your business transaction was with him. Or keep it. Liberator doesn't need it.”

Tarrant flickered a frown. “I’m not offering it to Blake or Liberator. It's money, Avon. Don't get precious about it. You can sulk at him just as well as long as he doesn't know it's in your back pocket.” 

When Avon still made no move to pick it up, he added “Or I can invest it for you, if you like. My investments have not got the best track record, admittedly, but the odds have got to come out in my favour eventually.” 

Avon sighed and scooped it up. “No wonder you're always broke.” 

“There's always more out there to be taken.” Tarrant said happily. 

The chip made a small lump in Avon’s pocket. “Have you called the Liberator?”

“Not yet.” Tarrant’s smile faded slightly. “I’ll do it now.”

 

“How are the lovebirds?” Jenna asked cheerfully.

“No longer chirping,” Tarrant sighed. 

“He’s not thrown you over?”

“Hard to believe, isn’t it? Still, his loss. Want to come and pick him up now?”

Tarrant turned to Avon as he terminated the call. “There. Home sweet home beckons. We’ve got twelve hours. Any ideas for filling them?”

“There’s that outstanding system upgrade,” Avon said.

Tarrant shrugged. “Of course there is. I’ll make coffee.”

 

Avon finished packing the last of his few belongings and headed up through the strangely quiet ship. The engines weren’t even idling but off. Liberator had joined them at the rendezvous point half an hour earlier and it was time to leave.

As he reached the flight deck he heard voices. Assuming that Tarrant was on the communicator, he walked in and stopped abruptly.

“Jenna? What are you doing here?”

“Bringing Tarrant a bracelet, “ she said. “He wants a look around Liberator and Blake’s invited him for dinner.” 

Tarrant was brushing his fingers across the bracelet. “I’ve never teleported before.”

“You’re ready, I take it?” Jenna asked Avon. “Right, three to teleport.”

Avon was tempted to spend the evening in his quarters but he supposed that he ought to find out what Tarrant was saying about him, so he joined the others for dinner. For once Tarrant seemed to be on what passed for his best behaviour; he flirted outrageously with Jenna, was unnecessarily deferential to Blake and friendly to the others.

Something was bothering Blake, Avon could tell. He was tense and frequently frowned. If Tarrant’s chatter was annoying him Avon had little sympathy; Blake had been foolish enough to invite him, after all. 

Tarrant finally declared that he ought to be getting back. They all strolled down to the teleport bay.

“Is someone coming across to take the bracelet back?” Tarrant asked from the teleport pad. “Avon?”

Avon was about to complain that he’d seen quite enough of the Pirate King and he was tired when Blake chipped in. “There’s no need. You might as well keep it. We have plenty of spares.” 

Avon snorted disapproval at that and slipped a bracelet around his wrist, going to stand beside Tarrant. “Two to teleport.”

“So,” Tarrant said when they were on the pursuit ship’s flight deck. “It’s goodbye, then.” 

“Indeed. I’ll take the bracelet now,” Avon said. 

Tarrant passed it to him. “I’ll no doubt see you again at some point.”

“It’s a big galaxy,” Avon said. “There’s no reason to think so.” 

Tarrant closed his eyes for a moment, opened them to glare at Avon. “I was going to wish you luck with Blake but he’s too nice a guy to saddle with you.”

“He’s saddled with me anyway,” Avon said. “I’m not letting him walk off with Liberator.”

“Never mind.” Tarrant said. “Go on then. Go away. Please.”

 

Blake was alone at the teleport controls. As Avon materialised he stood up. “We need to talk.”

“Not tonight, we don’t.” Avon dropped both bracelets into the box. “I’m going to bed.”

He strode towards his quarters, ignoring Blake calling his name. Whatever the man wanted to grumble about would wait until he’d slept in his own bed for the first time in nearly a month.

He was halfway through unpacking when the knock came.

“Is this an emergency?” he demanded at the door.

“Not precisely,” Blake said. “But I don’t see why you shouldn’t listen to what I have to say.”

“How about because I’m tired and I don’t care!” Avon snapped. “I thought this systematic harassment was meant to be over.”

“I said I’d treat you like the others and I am. If any of the others had behaved as badly as you did tonight I’d be talking to them too.” 

“Badly? What on earth are you talking about?”

Blake glared at him. “As if you didn’t know. You might as well let me in and then we both have some chance of sleep tonight.”

Avon was pretty sure that Blake wasn’t going to concede defeat and leave. Reluctantly he stepped aside.

Blake settled in a chair. “Obviously I don’t know anything about your relationship with Tarrant, and I don’t really want to know. But if you knew you weren’t able to be civil to him you could have kept away from dinner. You upset my guest.”

“Upset?” Avon stared at Blake. “What are you talking about? Tarrant’s incorrigible. He doesn’t have any feelings to hurt.” 

Blake sighed. “You had a relationship, it broke up and now you don’t want to do anything to encourage his hopes. I understand that. But that’s no excuse to be cruel.”

Avon shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve been watching too many romances, Blake. Tarrant’s a mercenary, a professional killer. Under that boyish charm he’s hard as nails. He likes sex, that’s all there ever was to our ‘relationship’ and no-one is less likely to give a damn about how I speak to them.” 

Blake shook his head. “He’s smitten with you.”

“Nonsense.”

“Did he ask you to stay with him?” 

“A business arrangement, “ Avon said a little defensively.

Blake half laughed . “Tarrant’s been running solo for half a decade. Why does he suddenly want a business partner now?”

“Maybe because I’m a great deal better than you ever gave me credit for!” Avon retorted.

“Oh, you’re undeniably brilliant,” Blake said dismissively. “That’s never been the issue.” He stood up. “Well, I suppose I must accept that you genuinely had no idea about Tarrant’s attachment and were merely being your normal obnoxious self. Next time do try to spot what’s under your nose. Goodnight.”

“Absolute nonsense, “ Avon said again to the newly closed door and he went back to neatly putting away his clothes.


	3. Catch A Thief

“She’s definitely gone,” Blake said, coming to stand behind Avon at the entrance to the hut. “And it’s getting dark. I wonder what we are supposed to do now.”

“We’re supposed to be lost, I imagine,” Avon said. “No chance of retracing our steps without ending up in one of those swamps. No chance of going onwards towards this hidden city without meeting the same fate.” 

He waved a hand at the inside of the small wooden building. “If not for the teleport we’d be trapped here in the dark with a heap of dead animals.”

Ducking his head to enter, Blake flipped a couple of the animal skins over. “Treated furs. People sleep under them.”

“Not civilised people. I’ll call the ship.”

“Wait,” Blake said. “Maybe we should stay here. It is hospitality offered and we were told that meant a great deal to them. We wouldn’t want to offend.”

“Stay here? All night? This planet has a fourteen hour darkness period, we’re in the middle of a forest full of wild animals, there’s only one bed and it’s covered in corpses!”

“The bed’s big enough for both of us and you’ll be glad enough of the furs when it gets colder. As for wild animals, the ship can monitor the clearing and alert us of anything nearby, beast or human. You’ll be as safe sleeping here as you would be in your quarters.” Blake said comfortingly.

“I will be sleeping in my quarters." Avon said. "We can teleport back down in the morning. The Kerrekens won’t even know.”

“There are rather too many satellites above us to be sure of that, “ Blake said. “Remember that these people aren’t nearly as primitive as they seem. If they were we’d have no use for them. "

He went over to the table and poked with a wooden spoon at the contents of a covered pot. “There’s food, and water in the jug. No need to go hungry. One night roughing it down here won’t hurt either of us, Avon.”

“There’s no lantern and Kerrek has no moons. It’s going to be very dark indeed.” Avon pointed out.

“All part of the attempt to intimidate visitors, no doubt,” Blake said cheerfully. “Fortunately Liberator can scan infrared. The ship will spot anything living larger than a mouse.”

“That’s not going to stop us tripping over things, “ Avon muttered. He realised to his annoyance that somehow he’d gone from arguing to going along with Blake’s ridiculous assumption that they would stay.

 

Avon woke in absolute darkness, to the sound of the wind in the trees and Blake snoring. Under the furs it was warm but the air in the hut felt close to freezing. He lay there for a while hoping to get back to sleep but his bladder had other ideas 

He tapped on his bracelet. “Liberator!” and again, “Liberator! Come in!”

“Yes, here,” Cally’s voice came across. 

“Is the scan still running?”

“Yes, it’s on the screen. I can see your outlines clearly. Is Blake asleep? ”

“And snoring,” Avon said. “I’m going outside. Is there anything out there?”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“I’m sure I don’t want to do it,” Avon said. “It’s very dark, even colder and potentially dangerous. Unfortunately this bloody hut is not equipped with all the facilities of home, I’ve been in here ten hours already and I’m not waiting another four hours till dawn. Is there anything out there or not?”

“Nothing at all,” Cally said. “Do you want me to look away for a while?”

“Take the image off the screen altogether, " Avon said. He hated the sensation of being watched. “Zen will alert you if there’s anything out there.”

“All right,” Cally said. “Anything else?”

A decent meal, a real bed, a light switch and an indoor toilet, for a start. “Nothing. Avon out.”

He fumbled the door latch and stumbled out into the bitter cold. For a frustrating couple of minutes he couldn’t manage to do what he’d come out for but eventually he was able to turn back into the doorway.

“Did you turn left or right?” Blake’s voice came close to his ear.

“At the doorway? Left. Why?”

“Only because I’d rather keep my feet dry. I’m coming past you now.”

They fumbled past each other with some difficulty and Avon dived under the furs again. He reluctantly shrugged off his leather jacket and trousers, knowing they would take forever to warm up again, and huddled in a ball, feeling his teeth chatter. 

Blake returned to the other end of the bed and there was silence for a while. Avon had let out all the heat from the furs in going out and they weren't getting warm again. It was infuriating to know that there was a warm body just a few inches away. If it had been anyone else Avon would have proposed that they sleep back to back. Surely Blake would have the sense to suggest it himself? 

“Are you still cold?” Blake finally asked. 

At last. “Yes. Very." 

“Right. Well,” and there was a stagey yawn. “I’m going to be fast asleep in a moment, so if you want to get your circulation going a bit it won’t disturb me at all.”

Avon considered this statement for a moment before he figured it out. “Did you just give me permission to masturbate?”

“Not specifically," Blake said easily, “But if it would help warm you up, I’ll be completely oblivious.”

That really was the final straw. Avon tapped at his unseen bracelet again. “Cally! Teleport me up in two minutes.” That gave him time to dress.

Cally's voice came back, concerned. “Is it an emergency? Blake was quite specific about teleporting only in an emergency.”

“It’s not an emergency,” Blake said. “Just Avon being cold and bad tempered. I’ll talk to him. Cancel the teleport. Out.”

“You just cancelled my teleport,” Avon said slowly.

“You didn’t need it. You’re not in danger, just uncomfortable.” Blake’s voice was unconcerned. “It’s not that much longer till daybreak.”

“So am I permitted any decisions of my own?”

“Your choices haven’t exactly been good ones recently. Think of it as me stopping you making more mistakes.”

Avon couldn’t really have this conversation while curled up in a miserable ball. He pulled himself up against the wooden wall, wrapping the furs as close as he could around his shoulders.

“I’ve had enough of your repeated insinuations. What mistakes of mine would those be?”

“Abandoning us at Horizon, obviously. Then falling into my little honey trap and losing the ship back again. And getting entangled with Tarrant wasn’t exactly smart, was it?” Blake said easily.

Avon picked on the obviously defensible one. “Tarrant again? What is it about him that concerns you so much, Blake? After all you’re the one who decided to hop into bed with an unprincipled pirate. Metaphorically speaking.”

There was a silence and for a moment Avon thought he’d won. Then Blake spoke again. “So why did you hop into bed with him unmetaphorically?”

“How is that any of your business?” Avon snapped. 

“I let you back because I thought I understood the sort of man you were. I thought that I knew why you’d done it and why I could be sure you wouldn’t do it again. Then you do something that makes no sense at all and I wonder if I’ve made a mistake that will kill us all. So please humour me this once, Avon.”

There had been no reason at all why Avon shouldn't have gone to bed with Tarrant. They have both been unattached and Tarrant had never looked for or been offered any advantage from the arrangement. Yet somehow every time Blake referred to it in that tone of bewilderment Avon felt uncomfortably and unreasonably compromised. 

He was damned if he was going to sound defensive. “You’re making a lot out of nothing. Lechery and boredom, that’s all. I’m never claimed to be an ascetic and Tarrant, in case you hadn’t noticed, is quite physically attractive.”

“Yes, I had noticed that,” Blake’s voice came over slightly strained, Avon thought. Was that what this was about?

“You’re not jealous?”

“No,” Blake said, slightly too fast.

Ha! Avon’s queasiness about the whole thing disappeared in a glow of satisfaction at the discovery of Blake’s hypocrisy. “Well, I can assure you that I’m no longer remotely interested in Tarrant. You should go for it. A bit of sex would probably do you good.”

“Do you have to be so crude?”

Avon shrugged in the darkness. “Hearts and flowers would probably work just as well, if you’d prefer.” He doubted that Tarrant would resist Blake’s advances however they were made. Blake fancied the pirate- now there was a rather unexpected thing. Still, Tarrant was easy on the eye and even easier in bed. Maybe it would unwind Blake a little. “I’ll let you plan your campaign of seduction. I’m feeling warmer now so I’m going back to sleep.”

 

* * * * * * * *

 

“Third pursuit ship detected in forward arc. No escape vectors available.” Zen droned.

“Hell,” Blake said succinctly. “Check again for escape vectors.”

“Confirmed. No escape vectors available.”

“We’ll have to try to take one of them out,” Jenna said. “Arm plasma weapons. Aim at the forward ship.”

“Wait!” Avon said. He had been watching the new ship’s trajectory on the screen. “Zen, magnify pursuit ship in centre of screen.”

The blob resolved into the familiar pointed profile.

“Magnify again.”

This time they could all see the banded paintwork. 

“What the hell is that idiot doing here?” Blake demanded of the room in general.

“Zen, notify battle computers that third pursuit ship is not hostile and recalculate escape vectors.” Avon commanded.

“Confirmed. Six escape vectors calculated.”

“And we can’t take any of them,” Blake said. “The Pirate King’s not going to survive a fight with two pursuit ships on her own and she’s not quick enough to shake them both off in empty space. Zen, we need an attack vector instead, and fast.”

 

“What was he even doing here?” Blake was looking down at the unconscious figure in the med unit. 

They’d dragged Tarrant still alive out of the smoke filled cockpit but burns and smoke inhalation would take some time to mend. His ship was far worse off, having no automatic repair systems; she was missing an engine as well sustaining serious fire damage to the flight deck. It had been a short and violent battle, and completely unnecessary. Liberator had been about to leave the two pursuit ships far in her wake when the Pirate King had engaged them.

Avon contemplated the chances of Tarrant keeping a secret for more than five minutes conscious and decided he might as well confess. “I told him we’d be here.”

“Why?”

Because Avon had got fed up of Blake moping around the ship and snapping at him. The man might be pining for Tarrant but he hadn’t shown any inclination to actually do anything about it, so Avon had done it for him. “I though an extra pair of hands for the raid might come in useful.”

“Don’t tell me then,” Blake said. “I suppose I can guess, anyway. We need to try to fit the King into the hold, I suppose. Lover boy here won’t be happy if we leave his pride and joy behind.”

The wreck of the colourful ex pursuit ship ended up grappled to the Liberator’s hull, spoiling her elegant lines and restricting the ship to no more than standard by four as they headed off in a hunt for the components for the replacement engine.

On the second day after the battle Avon came onto the flight deck to see two sets of curls bent over Blake’s console. Tarrant, apparently fully recovered and in some of Blake’s spare clothes, was talking quietly to Blake.

Avon paused, wondering whether to leave them to it, but Blake lifted his head and caught sight of him. “Avon. Tarrant wants to head towards the independent shipyard at Lyra Six. Ten days at this speed.”

“Sorry to be under your feet for so long, “ Tarrant added without a hint of sincerity.

“I’m sure you’ll find some way to make the time pass,” Avon said. “As far as I’m aware we’ve got nowhere we urgently need to get to. Lyra Six it might as well be.”

 

The knock that night was quiet. Avon went to the door.

“What do you want?”

Tarrant smiled. “I thought I’d just check whether you felt like company. Make the time pass faster?”

The offer was surprisingly tempting. It wouldn’t do, though, not in this situation.

“I don’t. Someone else might.” Avon leaned out into the corridor and pointed. “Try the third door on the left. Good night,” and he retreated back into his room.

He woke a few hours later. “Zen, is Del Tarrant in his quarters?”

“Negative.”

There. That was done then. He’d be interested to see how Blake looked in the morning.

The next day Blake looked a great deal less tense than he had done for weeks and even smiled occasionally, while Tarrant was bouncing happily on his toes. 

For the next week there seemed to be a general feeling of détente. Avon was struggling a little not to obsess about the two of them together. He didn’t want Tarrant, certainly not to any greater extent than a casual half hour might provide, but it was still odd to have the man on his ship yet involved with someone else, particularly when that person was Blake. He found himself lying awake at night wondering if Blake liked the same sort of activities as he had and whether Tarrant was being just as obliging or maybe more so. He found it quite unsettling to have to think about Blake’s sex life, a topic he realised that he’d managed to completely ignore until then. At least it would be over soon.

They were three days out from the shipyard when Blake took him aside.

“I’ve been wondering about asking Tarrant if he wants to stay, for a while at least. That ship of his is going to take some work and it might be easier for him to sell what’s left and pick something else up when he wants to. If he wants to.”

Obviously the relationship was going even better than Avon had imagined. He raised an eyebrow.”In the circumstances that’s hardly the most surprising proposal I’ve ever heard.”

“Would you be pleased?”

Pleased was a massive overstatement. He’d been looking forward to untroubled nights. Still, he supposed it was moderately thoughtful of Blake to consider his feelings at all. He was, after all, just the ex. “I could tolerate it, if that’s what you mean.”

Blake smiled. “You really don’t like letting on that you’re human, do you? You could admit to a little bit of pleasure at the idea of keeping him around.”

That was verging on distasteful. “I can manage without the prospect of your leavings,” Avon said sharply. “If you want to keep him on board I’m raising no objection but don’t think that I’ve still got the slightest attraction.”

“Come on, Avon, “ Blake said, smiling. “I know he’s sleeping with you. I’ve seen him coming in and out of your corridor at all hours.”

Avon was genuinely shocked and annoyed. “Do you really believe I’d do that to you? If you can’t trust Tarrant to be monogamous you should take the matter up with him. I wouldn’t fool around behind your back.”

“My back?” Blake stared at him. “Gods, I’m not involved with Tarrant. He’s your lover.”

“I don’t know what you think you’re gaining from this, Blake.” Avon’s voice was rising. “I know what’s going on. There’s no point in pretending otherwise, or accusing me of something you know is nonsense.”

“Nonsense?” Blake was on his feet. “Shall we see what Tarrant has to say?”

“By all means,” Avon said. Whatever Blake’s game was he was certain that he could persuade Tarrant to tell the truth about his relationship with the man. “Zen, message to Del Tarrant. Please join us in the discussion room immediately.”

 

“What's up, guys?” Tarrant said cheerfully, swinging his way around the door frame into the room.

“This may seem like an odd question,” Blake said, “but to settle an argument could you please tell us which of us are you sleeping with?”

They had to wait some time for Tarrant to get enough breath back to answer. “Well, I don't claim to to be the keen logician that Avon is, but I'm pretty sure that if you two put your heads together you could probably work out the answer to that one for yourselves. Now if you'll excuse me, we’re playing Space Monopoly, it's my turn and I have a real killer move planned.” He disappeared, still sniggering.

There was a long silence. Then Blake sighed. “Neither of us, then.”

“It seems not,” Avon conceded.

“So what was all that creeping around about?”

A high, clear voice came from the rec room. “Del Tarrant! You cheat!” 

Avon snorted. "I'm not the only one with rooms down that corridor.”

“I suppose they do have a lot in common.” Blake sighed as well, sitting back in his chair and closing his eyes. “We've really made fools of ourselves this time.”

“Yes.” Avon agreed. “Still, he'll be gone in three days, unless you plan to keep him around for Jenna's benefit?”

“Not even if she begs me,” Blake said firmly. 

There was another silence for a bit. “I don’t understand, though,” Blake finally said. “Why on earth did you contact him, if it wasn’t about picking up where you left off?”

“I was doing you a favour, “ Avon said. “I should have known better, I suppose.”

“Me? I’ve never had any interest in Tarrant?”

“Come on, Blake, When I accused you of being jealous on Kerrek you made a terrible job of denying it, and then you moped ill-temperedly for weeks.”

Blake stared at him for a second, then laughed abruptly. “Oh dear. For a very smart man you can get completely the wrong end of the stick sometimes.”

“You were jealous,” Avon insisted. “I was sure of it.”

“Yes, but not over Tarrant.” Blake said. “I thought that you’d found me out, since you made a unnecessarily gratuitous point of crowing about your discovery but afterwards you didn’t say yes, or no, you just acted as if it had never happened. Anyone would be ill tempered in that position.”

He sighed, “It was a relief, to be honest, when you brought your boyfriend on board. At least then I knew that I wasn’t in with a chance and I could stop fretting about what I should or shouldn’t say and whether I’d be any good for you or not. I was grateful to Tarrant for at least making things simpler, even while I was jealous as hell. I suppose it’s complicated again now.”

“It doesn’t strike me as particularly complicated,” Avon said. He’d had a few minutes to think about the unexpected discovery that both Blake and Tarrant were free agents and he’d found to his surprise that he cared a great deal more about one of these facts than the other. “Neither of us is currently entangled, as you like to put it. Both of us appear to have spent the last week fretting about all the fictitious hot sex the other one has been engaging in. Why don’t we just go to bed and work off a bit of that frustration? We can discuss consequences later.”

“That’s rather sudden,” Blake said with the flicker of a frown. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“I’m certain about the bed part,” Avon said. “I may have to reserve judgement on some of the consequences until I’ve given it some careful thought. I’ve been told that I’ve been inclined to poor choices recently and I don’t intend to make any over this.”

Blake smiled at that. “I suppose I can always trust you to look after your own interests. I know where mine lie. Bed, then.”

 

The Pirate King had been towed into the spacedock and Tarrant, bag slung over his shoulder, was making his unhurried farewells to Liberator’s crew. He still seemed to have a tendency to a fit of the giggles when he looked at Avon or Blake but at least he hadn’t explained the reason for his amusement to the others.

“I see that you got there in the end, then.” he said to Avon. “When did you finally figure it out?”

“Straight after I told him,” Blake said cheerfully from beside him.

“There was a certain amount of misunderstanding on both sides,” Avon said.

“Yes, I noticed that,” Tarrant said, and to Blake, “Am I allowed to kiss him goodbye?”

Blake laughed at that. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Tarrant didn’t bother asking Avon first. It was a long hot kiss carrying enough memories of considerably more explicit activities to make Avon struggle a little not to physically squirm, but he’d be damned if he’d appear sufficiently affected to push the young man away.

Tarrant broke off eventually, eyes gleaming. “See you around,” he told Avon and turned away for an equally enthusiastic farewell to Jenna.

“Definitely still smitten,” Blake said from beside him.

“I doubt that it will keep him awake at night, in his or anyone else’s bed,” Avon said dryly. “He’ll get over it.”

“He’ll have to,” Blake said. “I’m not going to lend you out to Pirate King again.”

“You’re not going to get the option,” Avon said, bridling a little. “I’m done with your notion of penances, remember.”

“You stole my ship... “ Blake started.

“Yes, I took your ship, and you took it back. It’s well past time that we both put that particular series of incidents behind us, don’t you think? Which means that you stop throwing it in my face every time we have a disagreement.”

He could see Blake struggling with the idea. No doubt but the man was a little too fond of that sense of moral superiority. In three days they’d already had enough small frictions in between the fun bits to make Avon wonder if this really was going to work out. If they were to have any chance, the ship stealing thing very definitely had to stop now.

“All right,” Blake said finally. “I won’t mention it again.”

Avon guessed that Blake meant to at least try to keep his word. For his sake, and he felt an unexpected stab of fondness which rather confused him. To get things back on a more straightforward keel he leaned over to murmur a suggestion as to what they could do when Tarrant had finally gone which made Blake shift his weight, blush almost imperceptibly and stroll over to usher the still dawdling Tarrant onto the teleporter at last. 

 

THE END


End file.
